JOEY

by Donald Goddard ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 5, 1974

Perhaps the best portrait of a Mafia figure yet published, Joey is the life of Crazy Joe Gallo of President Street, South Brooklyn, who becomes the most feared racketeer of his era -- feared by other criminals, that is. Young Joey models himself on George Raft, spending hours on street corners flipping a half dollar and talking without moving his lips, and on Richard Widmark's performance as psychotic Tommy Udo who kicked an old lady downstairs in her wheelchair, tittering insanely. Joey falls for twice-divorced Vegas dancer Jeffie, whose sex drive and temper match Joey's, sledgeblow for sledgeblow. Joey gets nine years on ice at Attica. When he comes out the gang wants him back as leader but Joey's on parole, avoids his old gorilla buddies, takes up with cafe society, signs a contract for his memoirs. But in Umberto's Clam House on Mulberry Street, Joey, who glories in himself as a Nietzschean superman, falls in a blaze of lead.

Pub Date: June 5, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION